Relatives deny slain fishermen were pirates

Jan 14, 2012 News

The gruesome discovery of the bodies of two Corentyne fishermen this week has left family

Pooran Mathoor with relatives

members scrambling to refute claims that the slain men were pirates.
The badly decomposed bodies of 39-year- old Pooran ‘Sham’ Mathoor and 17- year- old Fernando ‘Rakesh’ Singh of Cromarty Village and Bush Lot, respectively, were found at two different venues.
Mathoor was found on Monday afternoon by Whim police on the Adventure foreshore while Singh’s badly decomposed body was found by his cousin, Danny, on Tuesday afternoon at the Tain foreshore.
Kaieteur News was told that the legs of one of the men were bound and a piece of rope was also attached to one of his hands.
While this indicates foul play, the remains of the two men were reportedly too decomposed to ascertain how they actually died. It is suspected that they were bound and dumped overboard.
According to Mathoor’s wife, Savitri Singh, her husband’s body had impressions of cutlass brands and black-and-blue” marks on his body. She related that both hands were broken and knees were swollen, but it is believed that the damage the woman saw was caused by decomposition.
Rumours are floating around that Mathoor may have been involved previously in piracy and that he was the victim of vigilante justice.
However, his wife, Savitrie, dispelled these allegations, while confirming that he was held several times last year for questioning into piracy that took place on the Corentyne.
“He does work with the Region at Whim, he don’t get time to steal people things, he was a former sluice operator. He was just a part- time fisherman”, she said.

Fernando Singh

She opined that whoever murdered her husband beat him up badly then threw him overboard. The boat was never recovered.
Meanwhile, Rakesh’s mother, Kalawattie Singh, said that while she is clueless as to how the boy died and the motive behind his death, she did receive threats from a resident who threatened to “loss me son out at sea”.
She related that her tormentor was eventually placed on one year bond to keep the peace.
The young man was found face down on the foreshore. It appeared that both of his hands were tied with rope, since rope was around his left hand. His two feet were also bound with rope.
The teen’s mother said that she knew Mathoor and his wife for two years now and “never had any reason to believe he was involved in piracy or hijackings”.